Art of manufacturing cards with rounded corners



/ July 2 6, 1932.

G. A. WlLKE ART OF MANUFACTURING CARDS WITH RO UNDED CORNERS Filed March 1, 1930 JOHN PAUL. SMITH ANTIQUE FURNITURE JOHN PAUL 5M|TH ANTI QUE. FURNITURE 'IH FuzsT Srmscr JOHN PAUL SMITH ANTIQUE FURNITURE 7ll Fuesr STREET JOHN PAUL. SMITH ANTlQUE FURNITURE Patented July 26, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GUSTAVE A, WILKE, OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR TO LEADER CARD WORKS,

OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, A CORPORATION OF WISCONSIN ART OF MANUFACTURING CARDS WITH BOUNDED CORNERS Application filed March 1,

This invention relates to improvements in the art of manufacturing cards with rounded corners.

In manufacturing printed business or calling cards or the like, it is customary to do the printing on blanks, each of which includes stock for a number of cards,two, four or more, as the case may be. After the printing operation is performed the blanks are cut into their respective component units and, if the cards are to have round corners, they are subsequently subjected to a. cornering operation whereby each corner of the blank or stack of blanks is individually rounded.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a process and form of blank whereby much of; the expense incident to the above described operation may be saved. In accordance with this invention it is proposed to provide multiple unit blanks which are die cut in such a way that the individual corners of each of the respective component units are rounded in the cutting of the original blank.

It is further proposed that each of the component units in the blank should. be spaced from each other unit by an integral connecting Web or strip suliiciently wide so that the side margin of each component card in the blank can be separately sheared by a cut tangent to the arc of its rounded corners. This avoids the fuzzy or roughened edges which result from the back of the shearing knife where a single cut is used in the finished edges of two cards in a blank.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 shows a blank embodying this invention, printed or engraved upon its component card portions.

Figure 2 shows the completed cards made from the blank illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the first step in the process of separating the component card units from the blank illustrated in Fig. 1.

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the next step in such process.

Like parts are identified by the same reference characters throughout the several views.

For simplicity of illustration I have chosen to exemplify the invention by showing a two- 1930. Serial No. 432,356.

unit blank only. The blank 5 in Fig. 1 comprises two individual cards Sand 7 which are integrally joined by a web 8 which is somewhat shorter than the length of the individual cards.

It will be noted that the blank 5 has been die out or otherwise formed, either before or after the printing operation (preferably before) to provide rounded corners at 9 for each of its component units. The rounded corners and the respective units are spaced apart by the web 8 above referred to.

In separating and trimming the individual card units 6 and 7, the plane face 10 of the knife 11 is set tangent to the arcs of round corners of card 6. The beveled face 12 of the knife faces intervening web 8. Consequently any roughness produced by the beveled portion of the knife is found only on the web 8 and not on any portion of the finished cards.

The stack of cards 7 is now turned beneath the knife for the purpose of cutting the web portions 8 therefrom, and again the plane face 10 of the knife is set tangent to the arc of corners 9 as shown in Fig. 4. Again the roughness produced by the beveled surface 12 is confined to the severed web portions 8 of the blank. As a result of this process the finished cards have all of their edges uniformly smooth, and .furthermore they are more accurately tangent to the rounded corners than has been possible under ordinary production requirements in the practice of any method heretofore known for themanufacture of round cornered cards. A

It is immaterial when the blanks are printed with respect to the die cutting operation which forms them. Ordinarily, however, the blanks will be manufactured in quantities and distributed for printing in small lots. Consequently, the die-cut blank, comprising multiple units with individually rounded corners and an integral connecting web, constitutes in itself an article of manufacture, and is sold in stacks or packages of the type shown in Fig. 3.

What is claimed is:

1. The method of manufacturing round cornered cards which consists in cutting said cards from a blank comprising a plurality of card units, each such unit having preformed rounded corners, and the respective units being spaced by intervening web portions of the blank, separating each of said units from its adjacent web portion by cutting upon a line tangent to the arcs of the rounded corners of said unit, and individually separating each'next consecutive unit from.

the same intervening web portion by cutting upon a line tangent to the arcs of other corres nding corners.

2. The method of manufacturing round cornered cards which consists in forming a blank of sheet material with rounded corners and providing the sheet with an intermediate waste portion so as to separate the sheet into spaced card units, forming the adjacent sides of each unit with rounded corners, cutting one unit from the sheet upon a line tangent to the arcs of the adjacent rounded corners, reversing the blank and cutting the next consecutive unit from the blank upon a corresponding line, the cutting operation being performed by a knife having one face sufficiently plane to make a clean cut positioned adjacent the rounded corners of each successive unit, and a beveled face positioned in each cutting operation adjacent the waste portion, whereby the card units will have smooth severed edges and roughness will be confined to the waste portion.

3. The method of manufacturing round cornered cards which consists in forming a blank of sheet material with rounded corners and providing the sheet with a medially disposed reduced waste portion so as to separate the sheet into spaced card units, forming the adjacent sides of each unit with rounded corners, cutting one unit from the sheet upon a line tangent to the arcs of the adjacent rounded corners, reversing the blank and cutting the .next consecutive unit from the blank upon a corresponding line, the cutportions.

GUSTAVE A. WILKE.

ting operation being performed by a knife having plane and beveled faces and positioning the plane face adjacent the rounded cor ners of the sheet to be severed whereby the cards are provided with smooth severed edges. i

4. The method of manufacturing round cornered cards which consists in forming blanks of sheet material, eachcomprising card units with individually rounded corners and an intermediate web portion integrally joining a plurality of such units, stacking the aforesaid blanks with their respective card units and web port-ions in registry, simultaneously separating the units on one side of the registering web portions by a smooth knife cut on a line tangential to the arc of the rounded corners of each of the units so separated from the blank, absorbing in the web ortion of the blank the roughness produced 65 y the cutting operation, and subsequently 

